Amanita gracilenta - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella
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name Amanita gracilenta
name status nomen acceptum
author A. E. Wood
english name "Australian Gracile Lepidella"
intro

The following is largely based on the original description (Wood 1997).

cap

The cap of Amanita gracilenta is up to 40 mm wide, convex then plano-convex, smooth, dry, white to dull cream, center more dull buff, with a with a nonstriate and slightly appendiculate margin.  Some volval remains are scattered sparse, thin, fibrillose, flat scales; the scales are white to pale cream and sometimes vaguely gray away from their edges.

gills

The gills are free, crowded, thin, white to pale cream, with a concolorous edge.  The short gills are present in at least one or two series.

stem

The stem is up to 130 × 6 mm, white, smooth or with slightly granular covering.  No ring is present.  [Note: Apparently contradicted by accompanying illustration that shows a wavy line around the stem in what might be called an annular zone.]  The base is subglobose, not abrupt, equal or slightly swollen with a slight fibrillose, concentric band around the stem at the point at which the expansion into the bulb begins.

spores

The spores measure 8.1 - 9.9 (-11.0) × 4.5 - 6.1 (-6.6) µm and are elongate and strongly amyloid.  Clamps are absent at bases of basidia.

discussion Wood describes the mushroom as occurring in sclerophyll forests and "tall open forests" from the state of New South Wales, Australia.  A sclerophyll forest in the Australian bush is a forest of hard-leaved plants including Eucalyptus in the overstory (wikipedia).

In describing his stirps Straminea, Bas (1969) suggested that he could merely have created a collection of small species that were difficult to place elsewhere because of the obscurity of the veil structures.  This situation was made complex in that he hesitantly placed A. crassifolia Bas nom. prov. in this stirps (see A. subsolitaria (Murrill) Murrill).

Based on the original description of stirps Straminea, Bas' revision of Amanita straminea (now known as A. austrostraminea D. A. Reid) and Wood's original description of the present species, placement in stirps Straminea seems reasonable.  Amanita gracilenta is distinguished from A. austrostraminea by lack of a ring, smaller spores, and a more slender and elongate habit.  It is possible that A. austrostraminea has symbionts other than than Eucalyptus—at any rate, it was described as being collected under shrubs.

Reader may also wish to see Amanita albidannulata A. E. Wood and Amanita annulalbida A. E. Wood.—R. E. Tulloss and L. Possiel
brief editors RET

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